The producers of renewable energies fear that interventions in the European electricity market could slow down the expansion of the technology.

The efforts being considered by Brussels to curb energy costs are important, industry representatives said on Friday.

However, they would have to be carried out "in such a way that they under no circumstances thwart the primary and unalterable objective of massively accelerating the expansion of renewables," said the head of the Federal Association of the Solar Industry, Carsten Körnig, to the FAZ. "Only if the industry has access to sufficient capital, will it achieve the ambitious expansion goals and make the necessary investments.”

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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Henrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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The faster the expansion of cheap green electricity production succeeds, the faster "price-driving supply bottlenecks will be overcome".

However, many medium-sized providers lacked the means: "Short-term interventions in the energy market should therefore be limited to the necessary minimum in this regard." Körnig was reacting to a discussion paper by the EU Commission on combating escalating energy prices.

The plans envisage skimming off the surpluses from nuclear power and green electricity producers and passing them on to consumers, for example as income support for overburdened households.

Gas-fired power plants drive up electricity prices

The federal government feels confirmed by Brussels.

It must be ensured that private and commercial consumers "benefit more on their electricity bill from the fact that renewable energies produce so cheaply," said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

This is currently not the case, since the electricity price is based on the last power plants that are needed to cover demand (merit-or principle).

At the moment, these are the expensive gas-fired power plants, so that the tariff as a whole has risen sharply - with large profits for non-gas suppliers.

The spokeswoman made it clear that pricing would be based on marginal costs in EU wholesale trade.

But in a "fundamental reform" they want to decouple the electricity price from the rising gas price.

The merit-order principle is retained, but the resulting "excessive profits" must be "passed on to the end customers".

The issue should be clarified at EU level: "There is a need to talk about how the extreme price spiral for electricity and gas can be broken, and we will talk about that at the Council of Energy Ministers on September 9th."

Different reactions come from the economy.

The idea of ​​skimming off the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU) met with little enthusiasm.

"We are not convinced by any of the proposals that are circulating to intervene in the electricity market, whether it is about an excess profit tax or the electricity price cap now proposed by the Commission," says VKU boss Ingbert Liebing.

"National unilateralism would have serious negative consequences"

“In recent years, many municipal utilities have done exactly what politicians expected of us and have invested in the expansion of renewable energy.

If the profits made are then skimmed off, that doesn't send any positive signals.” Incidentally, the approach would exacerbate the difficult situation of many municipal utilities.

Your income from the sale of green electricity will help to better deal with the turbulence caused by the high gas prices: "If politicians skim off that, we will not have the necessary capital and, in the worst case, we will need all the more state aid to remain able to act in the crisis."

Timm Kehler, head of the Zukunft Gas association, pointed out the importance of conventional generation: "The crisis shows that the price for a secure power supply is also based on power plants that step in when the sun and wind are not available." To bring low green electricity costs to bear is correct.

"However, it will take years to develop and implement a concept across Europe that brings together renewables with marginal costs close to zero and climate-neutral, secure electricity generation in one market."

The General Manager of the Association of Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Achim Dercks, praised the fact that his approach was successful throughout the EU: "National unilateralism would have serious negative consequences for the European energy market".

However, Dercks warned against simple solutions: "A cap can mean that power plants are taken off the grid and demand can thus be met even less."